Overseas students have long been looking to Canadian high schools to provide them with an international study experience and according to Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 25 per cent of all student visa holders – needed for stays of three months or over – were studying in a secondary school in 2004. The secondary sector, therefore, is an important one for the Canadian international education industry and schools are increasingly diversifying their product range to cater for students not able to commit to study periods of a year or more.
The types of courses on offer vary in terms of their academic and language content and in some cases appear to resemble general language and activity courses, more traditionally offered in private language schools. Richmond School District in British Columbia offers semester programmes for five months as well as bespoke short-term programmes for groups and Mike Kliman, District Administrator of International programmes, says that these programmes provide a way to introduce the district and the schools to potential long-term students.
He also highlights the difference between these programmes and those offered by language schools. “Many of our programmes now offer some element of integration with the domestic student population so that students have yet another ‘touchstone’ and legitimate venue for meaningful interaction to make Canadian friends.”
Kootenay Lake School District in British Columbia also offers a variety of short-term programmes for international students, ranging from three-week programmes in summer and winter, as well as a three-month spring programme and one- and two-month winter programmes. Sandy Prentice, International Programme Coordinator, believes that attracting international students is “a good thing for our very sheltered Caucasian community”. She reiterates, “Short-term programmes give a wonderful snapshot of all the things your schools and communities have to offer and this helps a student decide if they would like to return to Canada at some point to continue their education.”
However, not all schools have found their short-term programmes to be so successful. “We are thinking about eliminating all programmes that are less than a semester in length,” relates Scott Bergstrome of Gulf Islands International Programme in Salt Spring Island, BC. “It has been our experience that many of the short-term students lack the commitment to take their studies as seriously as they might.”
Very short-term programmes for international students may imply a lack of academic focus that may be at odds with a high school learning environment, but, often, overseas students have a very definite academic purpose. Clemens Rettich from Cowichan Valley School District in British Columbia says that their five-month credit programme is more popular with students than their three-month courses that don’t offer academic credit. “The five month programme… strikes the perfect balance between a longer term full-immersion in English, a full complement of academic and other courses and a shorter time away from home,” he asserts. “Many of our students who come for one semester opt to stay for a second semester once they are here.”
Rettich adds that these types of courses are particularly popular with Brazilians who can transfer the credits gained in Canada to their own school system. But he notes, “The vast majority of our one-semester students are from Germany. As Canadian courses are not fully transferable to the German system, time spent away from school in Germany comes at a cost. Therefore, a one-semester [programme] is easier to deal with.”
High schools in Canada have the potential to tap into a wide range of student markets by providing a serious array of programmes for international students. As Jacques Pelletier from Collège Bourget in Rigaud, Quebec, says, “[Short-term high school programmes] attract students who want to learn a language fast.”
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